A New York Times bestseller and Amazon Charts Most Read and Most Sold book.

A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Memoir & Autobiography.

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.

In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity—and indomitable nature—of the human spirit.

From the Editor

When I read headlines about North Korea, the first thing that comes to mind is a cartoonish image of the country’s leader projected on large screens in front of military displays, bragging about testing nuclear weapons. But what about the normal people like you and me? It’s difficult to imagine the challenges they face while raising families, while living their everyday lives. Enter Masaji Ishikawa, who has risked his safety and the safety of his family—if any of them remain alive—to come forward with a daring story of escape.

Only a few scraps of information make their way across the barbed-wire borders of nations and ideologies that divide us from North Korea. Add the physical distance and it’s clear why we don’t automatically feel a kinship with people living in Pyongyang, Dong Chong-ri or Wonsan. But A River in Darkness breathed life into the ‘enemy’, revealing warmth, humanity and dignity in the face of a man we come to know well. Mr Ishikawa has lost everything, but he holds out hope that at least one of his sons is alive—and that, perhaps, if more people know his story, his son might learn that his dad is alive and safe in Japan.

It is my hope that by sharing this story with you I will share the empathy that overwhelmed me while reading. What do we do with this new-found connection to our fellow human beings—those living next door as well as those living across the world? Perhaps we will all feel encouraged to promote peace in our neighbourhoods, vote for things we believe in, reach out to those in need and realize that there are always real people involved in current events—some of them fathers who go to bed each night dreaming of reconnecting with their sons.

When I read headlines about North Korea, the first thing that comes to mind is a cartoonish image of the country’s leader projected on large screens in front of military displays, bragging about testing nuclear weapons. But what about the normal people like you and me? It’s difficult to imagine the challenges they face while raising families, while living their everyday lives. Enter Masaji Ishikawa, who has risked his safety and the safety of his family—if any of them remain alive—to come forward with a daring story of escape.

Only a few scraps of information make their way across the barbed-wire borders of nations and ideologies that divide us from North Korea. Add the physical distance and it’s clear why we don’t automatically feel a kinship with people living in Pyongyang, Dong Chong-ri or Wonsan. But A River in Darkness breathed life into the ‘enemy’, revealing warmth, humanity and dignity in the face of a man we come to know well. Mr Ishikawa has lost everything, but he holds out hope that at least one of his sons is alive—and that, perhaps, if more people know his story, his son might learn that his dad is alive and safe in Japan.

It is my hope that by sharing this story with you I will share the empathy that overwhelmed me while reading. What do we do with this new-found connection to our fellow human beings—those living next door as well as those living across the world? Perhaps we will all feel encouraged to promote peace in our neighbourhoods, vote for things we believe in, reach out to those in need and realize that there are always real people involved in current events—some of them fathers who go to bed each night dreaming of reconnecting with their sons.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

Customers who bought this item also bought

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Product description

About the Author

Born in 1947 in Kawasaki, Japan, Masaji Ishikawa moved with his parents and three sisters to North Korea in 1960 at the age of thirteen, where he lived until his escape in 1996. He currently resides in Japan.

Review

A terrifying true story of life in North Korea...Told in simple prose, this is a shocking and devastating tale of a country s utter contempt for its citizens. Kirkus Reviews

In his achingly straightforward memoir, Ishikawa vividly describes the horrendous conditions that the tyrannical and cultish state inflicts on its people...Ishikawa relates his painful story with sardonic humor and unwavering familial love even in the depths of despair, making human the often impersonal news coverage of mysterious and threatening North Korea. Booklist (starred review)

Like Kang Chol-hwan s The Aquariums of Pyongyang (2001) the book that spurred President George W. Bush s commitment to helping the people of North Korea Mr. Ishikawa s...descriptions of North Korean poverty are chilling, as are his accounts of the corruption and repression that dominated every aspect of life there...searing, swiftly paced. Wall Street Journal

Masaji Ishikawa was born in Japan to a Korean father but repatriated as a boy to the supposed paradise of North Korea. Newly translated into English, this account of his life and appalling times should become a classic. South China Morning Post

We often turn to books to help us understand people, experiences, and worldviews different from our own. If you re looking to further your education in 2018, pick up A River in Darkness: One Man s Escape from North Korea. In his memoir, translated from Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa recounts his turbulent childhood and life under a totalitarian regime in North Korea. Yes, you ll learn about the country s politics, leaders, and economy. But more importantly, you ll learn about the people who live there and what it s like to be on the lower end of the social hierarchy. HelloGiggles

Compulsively readable and heart-wrenching, A River in Darkness reveals the daily cruelty of North Korea s government to its poorest people. In this memoir, the victim is a young Japanese-born Korean who settles in the North with his parents, only to endure privation and abuse, as those he loves die of exhaustion, hunger, and loss of hope. Blaine Harden, New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Camp 14 and King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America s Spymaster in Korea

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Customer reviews

Amazon calculates a product’s star ratings using a machine learned model instead of a raw data average. The machine learned model takes into account factors including: the age of a review, helpfulness votes by customers and whether the reviews are from verified purchases.

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

It’s hard living in Australia to truly comprehend just how bad people in some other countries have it. This book is a smack in the face to grasp that reality. The extraordinary suffering and never ending adversity the writer describes is hard to get your head around. It’s just one devastating hit after another. I don’t understand why he had children when he could barely feed himself. The epilogue is quite full of anger and despair at the miserable life the writer has been dealt. How could he feel any other way?

An amazing story of a half-Japanese, half-South Korean man and his family, and the North Korean propaganda machine used to lure thousands of former Koreans back from Japan in the 1960s. In North Korea they were despised and enslaved, with no hope for the future as they were regarded as being at the bottom of the social scale. It is the story of one man’s sheer survival in the hell-hole that is North Korea and his determination to return to Japan. Couldn’t put it down. It’s a book that will stay in the memory for a long time.

Unbelievable! A heart-breaking story of a half Korean, half Japanese man and how he was lured over to North Korea via their evil propaganda machine lying to people that it was " paradise" over there. Living in Australia I had read all about the hardships endured in North Korea and how it's people were starving, but never truly realised what it was really like over there until I read this book. It opened my eyes and also the tears flowed, and I posed the question - How can one human being treat another like they do? This man after many years decided to escape and return to Japan. He finally made it after enduring an arduous trek. However, he found out that he was unable to bring out his wife and children. A devastating end for one man, who had suffered unbelievable hardships all his life.

One man’s flight to freedom from a repressive, controlling and outrageously careless of citizens’ rights regime. A short informative, emotional account of human rights atrocities perpetrated in Northern Korea. Highly recommended to anyone who has an interest in human rights or the politics of closed regimes. I read it in two short sittings and feel sad for what this man has lost, and his frustrated efforts to help his family.

This book was above and beyond my expectations. An unimaginable harsh way of life. Tragedies unfolding one after the other in a totalitarian country that would break any human being physically and emotionally. I strongly recommend this book as it is a valuable eye opener to picture how some other humans live in other parts of the world!

It's hard to imagine the atrocities endured by Mr Ishikawa and his family. To watch people die of starvation in these modern times just should not happen!A very harrowing insight into life inside the very private, totalitarian regime of North Korea.Definitely a "must read".

Like many people in the West I have heard acconts about how awful life is for ordinary people living in totalitarian regime's like North Korea. Mr Ishikawa's account of how truly terrible his life and the lives of countless others are living under the warped ideology of a state like N Korea should serve as a reminder to people living in democratic countries how lucky we are.

To think that all this happened-is happening in my life time is quite unsettling.Control of the media from North Korea cant go forever with the world now blanketted with satellites and computer connections.But when the world swallows its pride and decides that the North Korea wall must come down -- what will we find ???

Top international reviews

M. Dowden

5.0 out of 5 starsWorth Reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2017

Verified Purchase

Although originally published in Japan in 2000, this is I believe the first time that this memoir has been translated and published in English. Here Masaji Ishikawa recounts how his family emigrated from Japan to North Korea, and the experiences and trials that they went through.

Starting off when he was still little Masaji explains about life for him and his family in Japan. Although his mother was Japanese his father was actually Korean, coming from a place that is now in South Korea. We read of what life was like at home, and how the family was discriminated against because of his dad’s nationality.

Being given a chance to live and work in the new Democratic People’s Republic of Korea so the family transpose to North Korea, only to find the stories of some sort of wonderful utopia are completely false. We then read of Masaji’s growing up under the regime of Kim Il-Sung and then later under his son Kim Jong-il, before he made his escape.

I think most people have an idea of what life is like in North Korea, and the philosophy of Juche, plus how really although a supposedly communist country it is really more akin to a feudal system with a ‘royal family’ as such in overall control. What then makes this stand out from other books along these lines is that we learn of the difficulties of the family as well as those faced by Masaji. We know from the beginning of this that his father is a violent man, but as Masaji grows up and starts to learn so do we of why his father is like he is, and the discrimination he faced in Japan, where he was taken by the Japanese controlling forces at the time.

Returning then to Korea, albeit the North he finds there that he is discriminated because he lived in Japan and has a Japanese wife, thus not being that welcome. Of course, we see through the lies of North Korea, and the real conditions for the vast majority of the people who live there, as well as all the propaganda and brainwashing that goes on.

A relatively quick read there is a lot to take in here, and reminds us that for the people of North Korea, in general they have never known anything else than how they live now, because they have even before the rise of the regime lived under the control of others. We are also reminded that trying to leave the country, especially at the time that Masaji Ishikawa did and through somewhere like China, meant that if you were caught on the Chinese side of the border you would be returned. In all this makes for a thoughtful and poignant read and should do quite well.

In the bleakest and simplest terms Masaji describes his life. There is no agenda put forth. There is no hidden meaning. There's just a glimpse into a life so harsh and brutal that we can barely comprehend it. It's almost as if he was sitting there with us, just telling his tale... almost as if to fulfill his promise to his mother that when he got back to Japan he would let the world know what happened to his family.

Don't expect a light or witty tale. There are no flourishes. Had there been it would have made the story more appreciable but much less real. Such things don't come easy to a person who has stared death down in desperation.

A good read for people looking to understand a bit about communism, social injustice and the will to live.

I have read numerous books on north Koreans escaping to the south and although life is still difficult for those individuals the life of returnees seems to be so much worse. Lied to, cheated and selected as the lowest of the low caste members it is difficult to comprehend how harsh their life was and still is to this day. We see well fed leaders with smiles of death who can say and do whatever the wish and if you disagree or are corageous enough to say no then you are beaten or become one of the disappeared . Ishikawa San story from childhood to present is written well, his family have suffered all their life and even though he made it back to Japan he is still suffering with guilt about who he left behind. The authorities should never ignore this story and they should be doing everything possible to help Ishikawa San help his remaining family. It is a sad thought that Ishikawa San is possibly one of many in the same boat who have made it back but stuck as a non gratis

I picked this book up because it was on sale and I was interested in reading about North Korea.

From the very start it's a story of a hard life of extreme poverty in Japan. That's before they even get to North Korea. Once they get there the poverty is turned up to 11 and they are astounded by what they've signed up to. But too late, they can't return to Japan.

The writer is an incredibly humble man, full of humility, wisdom and the inner workings of the human condition. Particularly the human condition under extreme stress.

His life in North Korea is about as terrible as I could imagine. Seriously, the people in this story have nothing and starvation is a very real and constant threat.

All the while he has to deal with the 'Regime' and it's corruption, it's defiance of logic and common sense and it's insanity.

4.0 out of 5 starsBooks like this are essential for us to know whats really happening in the world.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2018

Verified Purchase

This is one powerful little memoir. It's a true story that sounds like dystopian fiction - for most of us, it is difficult to imagine families being lured to a new "paradise", only to be met with famine, concentration camps and violence. It's hard to accept that this is still part of our world.

I, like many, am fascinated and horrified by North Korea. Recent news stories have only fuelled that particular fire of fascination. I've read fiction about the history of Korea in books such as Pachinko, which showed many Koreans migrating to Japan during colonization and being seen as second class citizens. Then, later, when their home country was split in two, many were unable to return. I have also read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which documents a variety of different experiences from defectors.

A River in Darkness complements both those books and adds something very unique - a detailed first person account of what it was and is really like to live in this secretive nation.

Ishikawa was born in Japan but his Korean father was seduced by promises of "paradise" and having "everything you need" in North Korea. The Red Cross shipped Japanese families to North Korea; something which the Japanese government and the UN were all too aware of and made no effort to prevent. So Ishikawa's family packed up and got on the boat. They arrived in a wasteland of horrors and were given a shack to live in with no electricity or running water.

For over thirty years, Ishikawa and his family suffered and starved. No one dared to speak out against the system, and it would have done no good if they did. As Japanese nationals, they were labelled as "hostiles", which meant they were given the worst jobs and worst homes. Ishikawa lost loved ones, his freedom, and most of his life to North Korea.

It is a deeply sad memoir and even the ending brings little relief. Ishikawa admits that he can feel nothing but bitterness. It's a dark, haunting, and eye-opening look into one of the greatest atrocities of our time.

4.0 out of 5 starsHeartbreaking Account of One Man's Escape from Tyranny.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2019

Verified Purchase

Unbelievable account of a man's escape from North Korea back to his native Japan. He tells of how his family were tricked into going to North Korea, thinking their future would be assured. It is a tale of state control. of deprivation, hunger and fear. How they lived at all is remarkable considering the extreme poverty they were thrown into. The descriptions of what they were reduced to eating are heart breaking. In the end he left his family to escape and try to get help for them. There were others who sheltered him along the way as he moved from one dangerous situation to another. He managed to get back, eventually, but was left without support from the Japanese authorities. His wife had died and later he learned that his daughter too had perished. Since his escape, he has not been able to obtain information about the rest of his family. A truly terrible story reminding us of how fortunate we are to have our freedom.

I think autobiographical works are some of the hardest to review, especially when they recount such harrowing experiences as are described here. One cannot argue with the content, but the author's approach to the material and style of writing are still important.

Masaji Ishikawa's story (which, in spite of the title, actually concentrates more on his childhood in Japan and his life in DPRK than his eventual escape back to Japan), is worth hearing and truly my heart-rending. It is particularly poignant to hear that however difficult the Korean-Japanese family's life was in Japan due to poverty and racial bigotry, it became infinitely worse in North Korea for exactly the same reasons. I liked the way Ishikawa was honest enough to comment on the way his experiences as a foreigner in DPRK helped him to understand his (Korean) father's behaviour and feelings in Japan. Given the brutality which his father showed to his (Japanese) mother while the family was in Japan, it would have been easy to have glossed over this, so full credit to the author. However it is the epilogue, about his life in Japan after his escape that is the most painful to read, since it failed to live up to his expectations and left him more isolated than ever.

The writing itself is not the best, but the author, who hadn't had the benefit of a full education even before he left Japan, was presumably writing in Japanese, a language which he hadn't used since he was an adolescent, quite shortly after his return to his native country. Looking at the authors' section on the Amazon website, there are two others involved, perhaps one to assist with the Japanese and the other to translate the book into English. This implies that some of the narrative may have been a stage removed from the original before the English translator could set to work - a far from enviable task.

This is the first book about North Korea who have I have read - and won't be the last.

5.0 out of 5 starsA very interesting account of the hardship of life in North Korea

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2018

Verified Purchase

A very interesting account of the life of a man who was born of a Korean father and a Japanese mother. Born in Japan and forced to go to live in North Korea with his parents when he was 13, he tells of the hardship and deprivation of the lives of North Koreans, and particularly those known as Returners, those who returned to their homeland from Japan, with the promise of a wonderful new life. The reality of this new life was shocking. They lived in shacks, on starvation diets and worked hard for so little. He only escaped after 36 years and returned to Japan. Even so, the story is sad as he doesn't find the life he needs here either.

Truly fascinating yet heartbreaking account of one man and all his family, struggling in the evil totalitarian DPRK.Immigrating at 13 years old with his Korean Father, Japanese Mother, and two sisters.From Japan to North Korea they set off, based on the promise of a much better life.But all he faced was a life of cruelty, inhuman conditions, starvation, and the fear of death all around him.This book really does describe just how bad it was, and still is, living in North Korea.

North KoreaAlways in the news but what IS the truth?This book, if true because we cannot verify one way or the other, paints a truly miserable picture of a suffering existence.But, it wouldn’t be out of place during the Great Depression as incredibly written by Steinbeck in his Great American novel; Grapes of Wrath.The governmental brutality is nothing new in history & neither is enforced relocation.But, these are ordinary people and that makes their suffering all the more relatable.I an interested in learning more about this secretive place & recently enjoyed Michael Palin’s 2 part journey into modern North Korea.This book however is a good place to begin.

I hardly know where to start - the images this book conjures up of life in North Korea are fascinating. I had no idea that this sort of feudal regime still exists, but, having read a number of accounts of life under this brutal dictatorship, I can believe it. I am half Japanese myself but have always been well accepted by Japanese people and so I was very disappointed to read that the author did not find it so. However, in his case the 'other half' was Korean (mine is British) and I know that Koreans seem to be treated with some suspicion. An excellent book, nevertheless.

Dear Mr IshikawaThank you so much for writing this book and sharing the story of your life with us.It has been a revelation to me and no doubt to countless others.You are obviously a man of great courage, commitment and resilience.I hope that since this book was published that your life path has changed for the better.I wish that I could help in some way and hope that these words give some encouragement to you and cause others to read your book.

This was a very moving account that everyone who thinks that life is tough should read. We don't know the half of it. It is a heart rending account of a life of suffering. I can't say I loved it, because it broke my heart. I found it very disturbing, but it was a true story and I had to listen to it until the end, even though the cruelty and injustice described within left me appalled and very sadly, deeply disturbed. Sad how too much government can crush any opportunity for man to rise above his state. It made me realise how very blessed i am to live in the UK where if I can truly thrive.

5.0 out of 5 starsVery good read. A real page turner. Excellent account if living in North Korea and its brutality.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 April 2018

Verified Purchase

I found this book to be an excellent read. I couldn't wait to read the next page wondering what was going to happen next. A very good description of having to live in a totalitarian state where free thought can get you killed. Excellent description of the hardships this man had to endure. Shows how when we are deprived of free thought that their can be little or no innovation or motivation to improve your way of life. The suffering he describes is heartbreaking. A true description of living in a communist totalitarian state and the savagery that the population of North Korea are still living under. Definitely recommend this book.